Parliamentary Conference

I was the official photographer for the 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, hosted at Westminster. The conference was attended by MPs and officials from parliaments all around the Commonwealth. The delegation were addressed by many speakers including Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague. The conference was officially opened by Princess Anne in a ceremony at Westminster Hall.

Testimonial

One of my event clients took the trouble to write me the following thank you note. Much appreciated!

"Thank you very much for your help and hard work during our recent 60th Westminster Seminar on Parliamentary Practice and Procedure and the Westminster Series: The Committee System.

We greatly appreciate your assistance in producing a fantastic photographic record of both events. In particular, we are pleased the delegates will be able to access an online gallery of photographs and thank you in advance for your work in coordinating the purchasing of these images. We look forward to working with you again."

Hatty Cooper, Assistant Secretary, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK Branch.

You can read more testmonials here; http://www.paulmilsom.co.uk/section77001.html

Westminster

A delegation of parliamentarians from Costa Rica met with the Speaker of The House of Commons as well as MPs and members of the House of Lords. They discussed issues such as climate change and drugs trafficking.

Westminster Events

Spent much of the past two weeks covering some fascinating seminars and meetings at Westminster. Firstly, there was a delegation of MPs visiting from Tajikistan. They are shown above during a lunch meeting at Lancaster House (top picture).

Then there were over 50 MPs from around the Commonwealth attending a seminar about parliament and governance. This included meetings at the Supreme Court (5th picture) and at Speaker's House, hosted by the Speaker of The House of Commons, John Bercow MP (final picture).

Climate Change Conference

Had a fascinating week photographing the International Parliamentary Conference on Climate Change. The evidence for Climate Change is overwhelming and all the actions we can take to reduce CO2 emissions are hugely important.

The top picture shows the delegates in Westminster Hall. Below that is James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK; Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change; Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Climate Change Committee and Mr Speaker, chairing a debate amongst the delegates.

Human Trafficking Seminar

I’ve been photographing a seminar on Human Trafficking. MPs from 20 countries met at Westminster for two days to discuss issues such as domestic slavery and child trafficking. Panellists included The Speaker of The House of Commons and Claire Short MP.

There are over 10,000 people in slavery in the UK and more than 1000 of them are children.

Antony Steen MP organised an awareness-raising exhibition in The House of Commons. The exhibition was opened by Alan Johnson, The Home Secretary, and William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary (pictured with Anthony Steen). The exhibition included the opportunity to meet women who had escaped from domestic slavery in Britain, such as the one in the picture (her face is not shown for legal reasons).

http://www.kalayaan.org.uk/

http://www.ecpat.org.uk/

Peacebuilding Conference

I’ve enjoyed covering an International Parliamentary Conference on Peacebuilding at Westminster. The picture shows one of the delegates meeting John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.

Parliament

Westminster hosted a parliamentary delegation from Afghanistan led by H.E. Younis Qanooni, the Speaker of the Afghan Parliament. The picture shows him (on the left) meeting Ivan Lewis MP, Minister of State.

Week in Westminster

I've spent a lot of this week shooting the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's 4th Governance Seminar. Around 50 MPs from around the Commonwealth have been visiting Westminster and City Hall to share ideas on governance. Next week they are off to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Brussels to continue their seminar.

There was lots of great discussion going on. Simon Hogart from The Guardian and Norman Smith from the BBC gave a fascinating talk about the influence of the media in government and how you can't always believe what you see on 24 hour news channels (not to mention blogs!).

Another highlight was hearing the youth choir from Anglesey. Having won a national competition they performed at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday. The picture shows them with the Speaker, John Bercow; Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman and Albert Owen, MP for Anglesey.

The bed pictured is in the Speaker’s residence within the Palace of Westminster. This is the bed in which a new monarch sleeps on the night before their coronation at Westminster Abbey.